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The European Parliament has voted to force Britain to limit the working week of its citizens.

Britain has no veto on this area, and unless the (quasi-devolved?) UK government can convince a suitable number of other EU members to back us up, the ban will be put in place. It will then be illegal to work more than 48 hours per week - regardless of whether you need or want to. In the land of the EU it is the [European] State that knows best, not the individual.

Having to pay the mortgage, saving up for a holiday, new car or extension, working to pay school or childcare fees, have better quality time, start your own small business or retire early - or retire at all the way things are going - will all be NO EXCUSE. There are no exceptions. Even if it’s temporary while another family member is out of work!

Now we see how powerless the British government has become. It cannot even defend our right to work how much we want. And even if we can convince enough to support our opt-out, what will we have to give them in return?

NatWest is offering a money advice service called ‘Money Sense’.

Rather ironic from a bank that all but went bankrupt and got itself over half-nationalised.

Czech President Václav Klaus has been slammed by senior MEPs and the Irish Government, for agreeing with the Irish public!

“How bizarre is EU politics?,” asked an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Nov 13. “So much so that the Irish government feels compelled to chide another head of state for agreeing with a majority of the Irish people.”

The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin described President Klaus’ meeting with NO Campaign leader Declan Ganley as an inappropriate intervention by a visiting head of state.

Later at a meeting in Prague Castle, Daniel Cohn-Bendit MEP, Green leader and 1960s French radical student who accused Irish NO campaigners of being CIA stooges told him “he will have to deal with the work directive and climate package” and “[Lisbon Treaty] I don’t care about your opinions on it…You will have to sign it.” Whilst on businessman and Irish NO campaigner Mr Ganley: “You are not supposed to meet him in your function.”

You have to? You are not? Who’s the President here?

Read more here and here.

There’s a lot of fuss being made about the idea of Shared Space road systems, of which the largest so far in the UK has recently opened in Ashford, Kent.

There’s a Facebook group against it, letters wrote to newspapers and councils, jokes about it on Have I Got News For You, and Jeremy Clarkson has labelled its supporters as “idiots”.

Clarkson wrote in the Sun that “They’ve deliberately made the ring road narrower to create this shared space…where cars and pedestrians all get on in perfect harmony…in the same way that the keepers at London Zoo could put all the animals in the same cage and sit back hoping that the Baby Jesus will stop the lions from eating the goats. Someone is going to be killed…either because they walked into the road, not knowing it was road, or because a motorist drove down the pavement not knowing it was pavement.”

He then proposes a return to 1960s city centre planning policies: “Make the road as straight and as fast as possible so people can get to work quickly and keep the wheels of industry turning. And then build foot bridges and railings to keep the cars away from those who choose to walk.” As if pedestrians and motorists aren’t ever the same people, and faster roads with railings and foot bridges (great for wheelchairs, buggies and the elderly) everywhere would be better.

Most complaints about Shared Space focus on the increased fear factor, but it’s meant to do this! Having signs, markings, kerbs, crossings and railings create a false sense of safety that subconsciously leads to faster, less cautious driving and less observant pedestrians. The increased perception of risk makes us take more care, when a situation feels unsafe, people are more alert and so there are fewer accidents.

This explains why New Road, a fully shared space in Brighton, has seen a 93% reduction in motor vehicle trips (12,000 fewer per day) and lower speeds (to around 10 MPH), alongside an increase in cyclist (93%) and pedestrian (162%) use; why a scheme implemented in London’s Kensington High Street, has yielded significant and sustained reductions in injuries to pedestrians with casualties fell from 71 in the two-year period before the street was remodelled to 40 afterwards (a drop of 43.7%). And in Holland casualty figures at one junction where traffic lights were removed have dropped from thirty-six in the four years prior to the introduction of the scheme to two in the two years following it.

Now there are issues with adapting to the system for the blind which need addressing, but I find it hard to challenge the evidence that Shared Space works.

Meanwhile Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been named the man other blokes most admire in a poll featuring in it’s top ten Apprentice boss Sir Alan Sugar, comic Peter Kay, footballer David Beckham, and The Office creator Ricky Gervais. You really have to wonder who they surveyed.

The Pound is down to a record low against the Euro for the fifth day in a row. The Pound now buys just less than 1.12 Euros on the FX Markets, although most High Street currency exchangers are offering rates not far from parity. It is only a matter of time before the Pound is worth less than a Euro.

The weak Pound is bad news for consumers and businesses which use imported goods, contrary to what that previous Pound-devaluing disaster of a Labour PM Harold Wilson said, the Pound in our pockets really isn’t worth what it was. Going abroad is dearer, as are many products. Take the popular Nintendo WiiFit, which was around £70 in September and is now roughly £130. But then a Pound once bought over 200 Japanese Yen, 215 at its peak, but is now buying just 134 Yen. Exporters will do well - assuming they don’t need too many imported parts - but this too will push up domestic prices. Inflation could well soon be back on the agenda once the current deflationary pull of declining energy prices ends.

The weak Pound has lead some to talk about Euro membership. I say the opposite, thank goodness we aren’t in the Euro!

Currencies move for a reason, that reason being the changing economic strength of one country compared to another. Movements are a safety valve and the currencies find their own true equilibrium balance as changing economic conditions affect different countries differently. We are being affected hardest by the recession so our currency falls, cushioning the crash by boosting exports and reducing imports - thereby saving jobs! If we couldn’t revalue the Pound, the economic changes would be all the harder. Conversely during a boom the currency strengthens, boosting imports that help contain inflation. We can also set interest rates to suit us, rather than a European average that is in fact like nobody (remember the average family has 2.2 children, unlike any family I know, and European averages are the same)!

Setting an exchange rate in concrete forever, like with joining the Euro, removes all of that flexibility. It’s madness, plain and simple.

Has Labour decided to go retro?

Unemployment, negative growth, state intervention, Nationalisation, firms going bankrupt, a truck load of government debt,ministers wrongly dusting off the old copies of J.M. Keynes they were given as a joke Christmas present and had been using to prop up that wobbly table…the economy has a 70s feel already.

Now the Education Department is at it. Sorry, I mean the Department of Children, Schools and Families, or whatever it’s decided to call itself today.

They’ve decided in a report costing a no doubt huge amount of taxpayers’ cashdebt that;
Children should go to school even younger - presumably to minimise family life, despite the most successful systems Internationally starting later and recognising the social and educational value of family.
English, Maths and Science should be abolished in favour of six broader areas of learning entitled Understanding English, Communication and Languages; Mathematical Understanding; Scientific and Technological Understanding; Human, Social and Environmental Understanding; Understanding Physical Health and Well-being; and Understanding Arts and Design - I guess because they like to confuse parents, create acronyms and talk nonsense.

How very 1960s it all is. It didn’t work then, and won’t now. It’s just pure insanity.

The way BAA and the government treats residents concerned about airport expansion is terrible, and I oppose the enlargement of airports over people’s private property.

But I also object to protests such as this, which serve only to damage the anti-expansion case.

Instead of concerned residents they can identify with, people will see environmental extremists breaking the law and endangering security - not least by occupying the time of security staff which would be better used elsewhere.

Instead of the message of ordinary people who’s homes face great disturbance, or demolition if extra runways get the green light, they will get messages about CO2 and a return to the stone age.

But most of all they will see ordinary people’s Christmas getaways and other trips being severely disrupted, shortened or cancelled altogether.

It’s no way to win friends and influence public opinion, and contrasts strongly with the professional and reasoned opposition of the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign.

Last night something truly shocking happened.

Eoghan got through on the X Factor again!

Despite making Busted’s original “Year 3000″ look like hard rock compqred to his version and slaughtering ABBA’s “Does Your Mother Know”, the teeny bopper defeated Diana Vickers and her rendition of Dido’s “White Flag” to win a place in the final for a £1 million record deal.

But did anyone else note the lyrics? ABBA’s “You’re so hot” became “You’re so cute” and Busted’s lyrics “Your great great grand-daughter is pretty fine” became “…doing fine” - doing fine with what, her GCSEs? Or doing fine in hospital? It just shows how ludicrous Eughan is as a finalist that they feel the need to change lyrics.

But it wasn’t enough in a way. How daft did he look singing the words “You’re only a child” - when so is he! - and “Does your Mother know that you’re out?” More to the point, does his? It must be a school disco.

Obama has described Cameron as a “lightweight”.

Everything is relative I guess - almost everyone’s a lightweight compared to America, the most obese country in the World.

Here are some notable “lightweights”.